Tuesday, February 05, 2013

Unintended consequences of "going green"

My wife and I try to do our part with being environmentally conscious and installed a solar water heater several months back and carry "green bags" to the food store to pack our groceries in for the trek home.

Well in physics, Newton's third law of motion asserts that; For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. And in economics there are often unintended consequences.

So, with our solar water heater, which is great by the way, after two days of cloud cover, the unintended consequence is we have to take a cold shower.

And now with our "green bags" for groceries, we learn at PERC's blog, The PERCOLATOR, we might be inviting the growth of "coliform and even e.coli bacteria" because we're not taking proper care of our bags. Read the entire blog post here…

These are just two minor "green" initiatives that, no matter the intention, unintended consequences occur.

Is there a cautionary tale here?

Of course it's great feeling like you're doing your part to save the earth, but there's a little more to all this than cute slogan's and condeming all the conveniences of life.